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Old 17-09-2003, 01:42 PM
Heather Husvar
 
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Default Next Year - Yes already! (REALLY LONG)

Pardon me if this is a duplicate post. I think the original may of been
eaten though.

At any rate, we are down to tomatoes and peppers in our garden. Several
things happened this year that made us rethink our gardening plan.
First, we did *all* of the gardening at my in-laws place. Now, we are
there often enough, but this year we had a death in the family, I got
sick and I hurt my back so the garden got rather full of weeds. Also, I
had a "plan" that I thought I could manage but my husband and his mother
kept "adding" and in the end it turned into more than I could handle on
my own. On top of that, we had a not so wonderful summer weather wise
so things didn't produce (except the weeds!) as well as we might of
expected. Still, overall it was an excellent experience and we did reap
some rewards. So far, next year we're thinking that at the in-laws we
will plant corn and greenbeans which are pretty low maintenance and
since the green beans are something the MIL likes/wants/requests she
will help maintain them a bit more. We will upkeep the strawberry patch
we started, which the FIL hopes runs out of the garden and over the hill
towards the creek and chokes out a bunch of the other plant life around
there. Hee hee. I'm guessing that the MIL will plant squash because
she likes it and she did it this year (too bad it got fungus and died, I
know that was a huge disappointment all around and I'm being serious,
not sarcastic.) That's it for their place, anything else there I will
not be responsible for. In fact, I will barely be responsible for the
corn and green beans. Now, the big change, gardening at hour
house!! Our yard is basically a large L shape with the end of the L
hiding behind the garage so one often thinks the yard is just a big
rectangle. Behind the garage is where our new garden is going to go.
Since our yard tends to retain a LOT of water and given this year's
weather and the realization that things happen that prevent hours of
weeding in the garden plus going back to work full time we've decided on
container gardening, more to the point, considering tire gardening,
which is something I didn't know about until Pat showed the resources to
us. After poking around back there I am figuring on 16 tires arranged
like this: | || | and we are putting pea gravel in between to make the
aisles attractive and easy to navigate. Now I need to figure out what
I'm going to plant. I am figuring one tomato or pepper plant for a tire
which takes out 6 tires if I go with three tomato plants, three pepper
plants. (actually, 2 bellpepper plants and then one tire of jalapeno
peppers which I think 3 jalapeno plants in a tire). This leaves me 10
tires to plan and agonize over for the next few months.. Yay! I just
need to figure out what I'd most like to have. So, is any one else as
neurotic as I am and thinking about next year?

BTW, yesterday we were raking the yard and noticed our backyard neighbor
(the yards meet up and there is no fence yet) has a HUGE apple tree and
TONS of beautiful large large apples. I think I am going to walk around
and introduce myself and ask if I can take a bushel. I think they must
be pretty easy going because they allow our other neighbor to practice
fly fish casting across their lawn. Hee hee.

Heather H.
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Old 17-09-2003, 04:12 PM
Pat Meadows
 
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Default Next Year - Yes already! (REALLY LONG)

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 11:50:10 GMT, Heather Husvar
wrote:

After poking around back there I am figuring on 16 tires arranged
like this: | || | and we are putting pea gravel in between to make the
aisles attractive and easy to navigate. Now I need to figure out what
I'm going to plant. I am figuring one tomato or pepper plant for a tire
which takes out 6 tires if I go with three tomato plants, three pepper
plants.


We put three bell-pepper plants per tire this year, it was
enough space for them. They did well.

The tomatoes - caged - nevertheless will need more room -
they overgrow adjoining tires otherwise. You can spread the
tires out some, or you can harvest spring stuff from a tire
first (lettuce, Asian greens) and let the tomatoes just
shade it out later in the season.


(actually, 2 bellpepper plants and then one tire of jalapeno
peppers which I think 3 jalapeno plants in a tire). This leaves me 10
tires to plan and agonize over for the next few months.. Yay! I just
need to figure out what I'd most like to have. So, is any one else as
neurotic as I am and thinking about next year?


Not neurotic, just a gardener! Winter is for planning
the next year, that's why we have winter. And to
rest...

With 16 tires, I would tend to concentrate on stuff that we
cannot get here in the stores - fresh and of good quality -
particularly salad greens, Asian greens, chard, beets, also
basil and a few other herbs. (Fresh basil is irreplaceable
to me.) I grow a lot of Asian greens (can't buy them here,
and they're FAST - this is a good characteristic).

Beans you'll have from your MIL's place, so that's OK.

With 16 tires, I wouldn't plant the things I can buy cheaply
and of decent quality: potatoes, onions, carrots, corn in
season, cabbage.

I will plant these next year - except corn - but we'll have
about 60 tires plus the hoophouse, so I'll have room for
them.

Think succession plantings: you can get a crop of lettuce
or baby bok choy out of a tire in time to plant a tomato in
it.

Mel Bartholomew's book 'Square Foot Gardening' is a really
good guide for tire-gardening, IMHO. He can be overly
dogmatic (most writers can), but you can easily adapt his
ideas to tire-gardening. And they pay off in less-labor,
plus more harvests.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry
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Old 17-09-2003, 04:32 PM
Pat Meadows
 
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Default Next Year - Yes already! (REALLY LONG)

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 11:50:10 GMT, Heather Husvar
wrote:


PS - Heather...as a PS to my previous post.

1. I'd really encourage you to read 'Square Foot Gardening'
if you haven't already. Also, be sure to read his website,
he's updated a few of his ideas and the updates are on the
website.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com

The only real difference between 'tire gardening' and
'square foot gardening' is that tires are round rather than
square, and tires are smaller than his recommended raised
beds.

Bartholomew is especially helpful on the 'what to grow' and
'how much to grow' questions, IMHO (except that he doesn't
cover the Asian greens and other exotics.)

2. If you think 'succession planting' - at least in my area
- this absolutely requires that you start your own seeds.

I had lettuce transplanted outside (into containers on the
deck) by April 2 last year. I had bok choy, choy sum,
chard, and hon tsai tai also growing outside in early to
mid-April. I started a bit late, they could have been
growing outdoors in late March - and probably in mid-March
with a bit of floating row cover to protect them.

There are no plants available to purchase that early in
spring in this area. There just aren't any at all here in
stores until mid-May.

We have four plant-starting shelves with fluorescent lights
in the living room (we've no place else to put them - if we
had a cellar or extra bedroom, we'd use it for this
purpose), but you can also start seeds on a sunny
windowsill.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry
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Old 17-09-2003, 08:42 PM
Heather Husvar
 
Posts: n/a
Default Next Year - Yes already! (REALLY LONG)

*trim*


Mel Bartholomew's book 'Square Foot Gardening' is a really
good guide for tire-gardening, IMHO. He can be overly
dogmatic (most writers can), but you can easily adapt his
ideas to tire-gardening. And they pay off in less-labor,
plus more harvests.

Pat


Thank's Pat, I'll check it out from the library next week if they have
it. If not, perhaps in November I'll buy it!

Heather H.
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Old 17-09-2003, 09:33 PM
Pat Meadows
 
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Default Next Year - Yes already! (REALLY LONG)

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 18:45:10 GMT, Heather Husvar
wrote:



Thank's Pat, I'll check it out from the library next week if they have
it. If not, perhaps in November I'll buy it!


If they don't have it, they may be able to get it for you on
inter-library loan. I do this all the time, I'm undoubtedly
our library's best 'customer' for inter-library loan.

But if you do have to buy it, if you look he

http://www.addall.com/used

you can get a listing of all used books for sale online, by
price. I just did this with 'Square Foot Gardening' and
copies are being sold as low as $3.50.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry
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